During the season of Epiphany, we reflect on the significance of the revelation of God in Christ that commenced with the birth of Messiah. One of the traditional antiphons sung on the Feast of Epiphany is the Latin text, Tribus miraculis: Tribus miraculis ornatum, diem sanctum colimus: Distinguished by three miracles, this holy day is celebrated: Hodie stella Magos duxit ad praesepium: Today the star led the Magi to the manger; Hodie vinum ex aqua factum est ad nuptias: Today wine was made from water at the wedding; Hodie in Jordane a Joanne Christus baptizari voluit, Today in the Jordan by John, Christ chose to be baptized ut salvaret nos,…
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Bach to basics
Why “Lutheran Mass” is not a contradiction in terms by Ken Myers [This article originally appeared in the September/October 2014 issue of Touchstone magazine.] When the words “Bach” and “mass” appear in proximity, the subject at hand is usually the magisterial Mass in B Minor. Composed during the last two years of his life as the last great project of his musical career, the Mass in B Minor is an aural textbook of forms of musical expression that Johann Sebastian Bach had explored and mastered for decades. Bach scholar and biographer Christoph Wolff has observed that, “just as theological doctrine survived over the centuries in the words of the Mass, so Bach’s…
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To Jordan came our Lord, the Christ
Text: Martin Luther (1483-1546) Music: Unknown source Tune name: CHRIST UNSER HERR ZUM JORDAN KAM THE TEXT From the beginning of the Church’s liturgical life, hymns have been used to teach or, more accurately, to preach. The long history of hymnody contains many figures — not all of them orthodox — who recognized the power of singing to instruct, encourage, and inspire. Along with St. Ambrose, Martin Luther was one of the greatest champions of music’s theological and pastoral significance. First published in 1543 — late in Luther’s life — the hymn Christ, unser Herr, zum Jordan kam (“Christ our Lord came to the Jordan”) was written to offer instruction about the…
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Herbert Howells,
Here is the little doorBetween 1918 and 1920, Herbert Howells wrote three Carol-Anthems, of which “Here is the little door” was the first. It is based on a poem by Frances Chesterton (1869–1938), the wife of the great apologist and journalist G. K. Chesterton. In one of his own poem’s — “The Ballad of the White Horse” — Chesterton credited her with playing a crucial role in his own faith: Therefore I bring these rhymes to youWho brought the cross to me. Unable to have any children, Frances Chesterton was deeply moved by the image of the Nativity and regularly wrote poems depicting the Infant Jesus for inclusion in Christmas cards. The best known of these is…
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Howells, Magnificat (Gloucester Service)
Herbert Howells composed more than twenty settings of the canticles appointed for use in Evening Prayer (the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis). Many of them are identified by the name of the cathedral in which they were first sung. When commissioned to compose a work for initial use in a specific liturgical space, Howells took great care to understand the acoustic qualities of the place, especially how certain notes were naturally heard as having richer resonance. But he was alert to more than the sound of the space. Howells once wrote of “the ecstasy he felt at seeing light flood through the great east window of Gloucester Cathedral.” The Magnificat he wrote…
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Orlando de Lassus: Conditor alme siderum
The fourth and last in my series on Renaissance motets based on Conditor alme siderum features a setting by a composer who is far too under-appreciated. As I wrote recently in Touchstone: Among musically knowledgeable listeners, even those who admire the music of the high Renaissance, the work of Orlande de Lassus is woefully unfamiliar. It was not always so. During his lifetime, in the second half of the sixteenth century, Lassus was easily the most famous composer in Europe. With contemporaries that included Palestrina, Victoria, and Byrd, such fame is a remarkable tribute to his artistic accomplishments. Another contemporary, the celebrated French poet Pierre de Ronsard, hailed Lassus as…
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Francisco Guerrero: Conditor alme siderum
This is the third in a series of “lessons” about how Renaissance composers explored the musical potential of the plainchant melody in Conditor alme siderum. In English translation (“Creator of the stars of night”) this hymn has been our Sequence hymn during Advent. (The earlier pieces featured compositions by Victoria and Dufay.) Francisco Guerrero (1528-1599) shares Spanish nationality with Tomás Luis de Victoria. But while Victoria spent much of his career in Rome, Guerrero spent most of his life in Spain, and most of that time making music at the Cathedral in Seville. His setting of the 6 verses of Conditor alme siderum — like Victoria’s — alternates between plainsong (odd-numbered…
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Guillaume Dufay: Conditor alme siderum
Here is another setting of Conditor alma siderum — our Sequence hymn for the season of Advent — and the earliest setting I’ll be presenting. It’s by a prominent 15th-century composer, Guillaume Dufay (1397-1474). Dufay was one of the leading composers of his time, and a widely influential figure in shaping the direction taken in the music of the Renaissance. Ordained a deacon, then a priest, Dufay became a member of the choir at the Papal chapel in Rome. But it was an era of great turmoil in the Church, with tumultuous Councils, schisms, and an antipope. Perhaps that explains why Dufay traveled a lot, which extended his aesthetic influence across Europe. In…
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How bright appears the Morning Star
Hymn #329Text: Philipp Nicolai (1556-1608)Music: Philipp NicolaiTune name: FRANKFORT or WIE SCHÖN LEUCHTET THE TEXT The text for this hymn was originally published (in German) in 1599, with the first line “Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern.” Originally including seven stanzas, it bore the title “A spiritual bridal song of the believing soul concerning Jesus Christ, her heavenly Bridegroom, founded on the 45th Psalm of the prophet David.” This description may perplex us, as we often sing this hymn during the Epiphany or Advent seasons, and — based on the English translation in our Hymnal — for good reason. After all, the first stanza ends with the plea: “Great Emmanuel, come and…
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Tomás Luis de Victoria: Conditor alme siderum
During Advent, our congregation often sings the hymn, “Creator, of the stars of light,” as our Sequence Hymn. As the name of the hymn’s tune suggests, this hymn is based on the 7th-century Latin hymn Conditor alme siderum. Victoria’s setting was written for four vocal parts. It includes all six verses of the Latin original, and alternates between plainchant (in the odd-numbered verses) and polyphony (in the even-numbered verses). This alternation was a very common compositional form in the Renaissance. Here is a performance of Victoria’s motet sung by Ensemble Nobiles.